My collegue Nate from the Live Search Webmaster Tools Crew, presents on Advanced Search Engine Optimisation for Web Developers at MIX08 in Las Vegas.
Watch it in Silverlight - very cool!
OK so I’m a slow typer! This is just a quick write up of another great session I attended at SES London.
Following on from his solo performance at SMX Stockholm, Google’s Adam Lasnik again took the stage for the Universal, Blended & Vertical Search session ably accompanied by Andrew Goodman from Page Zero Media, Mike Grehan and Jeff Revoy from Yahoo!
Kevin Ryan kicked us off by explaining that these new type of search engine results were seeing higher CTRs, with fewer users clicking through to the second page. Having images, video and news results populating the page was doing away with the “10 blue link” phenomena, making it harder for search marketers to use traditional methods to drive traffic to their sites.
Not being backward in coming forward, Kevin came straight out and asked whether there was an inherent bias towards YouTube or FlickR results appearing in Google and Yahoo! respectively.
Mike thought there was simply more of a richer experience for users with Andrew saying that in 3-4 years there’d be more and more of an emphasis on in-house properties featuring more and more in the SERPs. Both G & Y! said there was no bias but in Google’s case we’re not surprised YT gets more of a look-in as they have huge database of video to choose from.
So are site-builders thinking about universal search when they start designing their sites? The consensus was this new angle was filtering through, but that site-owners still need to get the basics right and struggle to get the content they have indexed.
As far as G were concerned all queries do pass through a universal search filter but results depend on the query. If the query lends itself to a visual result then it will appear. Y!’s approach to pretty much the whole session was one of relevancy. If relevant to a particular query, then a blended result would show.
Then Adam then mentioned something about chocolate – but I can’t read my notes………so will move on 
When asked about how decisions are made regarding the display of results, Adam again (as he did at SMX Stockholm) explained he’s a “search quality guy” and nowt to do with ads! Decisions are made on a query by query basis and there were no plans that he knew of to display universal search ads on a paid basis.
Social Search was touched on just as the guys on the analytics panel had discussed earlier. Is it a new breed of spam? How do you measure a conversation? Can we take it too far or are we still hooked on the direct response metric?
Jeff said it depended on how you filter the data, you need to ask questions of the conversation depending on its context.
Is social search adding value? Well Andrew said you’re going to get a lot of junk, so users need help to filter down to the “wisdom” of the individual. He then touched on personalisation, using past data to determine what a user might be most interested in.
So how is this going to happen? Through a secret sauce, experimentation, Google surveys 1% of users, we’re still on a journey (!). Andrew wanted “more openness, more inclusion.” Mike wants to see more video from different sources, although Adam was quick to point out that before Google bought YouTube the videos stayed on the site and were not “syndicated” via search.
SuperGuru Tips:
• Mike – get ready to change
• Andrew – be local, be social
• Adam – create compelling content
• Jeff – be relevant
There’s no doubt that these kind of results are just the tip of the iceberg and how we’ll see search providers display results in the future. We’ve all been dipping the toe in and experimenting – check out what Live Search thinks of Amy Winehouse!
The businesses that are savvy and get into the rich, indexable content game will see great early results. But you don’t have to be a big business either. If you’re a “builder in Richmond” I’d love to find a search result showing a short video of you showing off your recent work. Any £50 digital camera can take a half-decent video these days, so put down that cup of sweet tea and get shooting.
…I’m going to do it all again next week!
Quite a few of us Microsoftees will be speaking at Search Marketing Expo - Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman’s inaugural London conference under the SMX brand.
The conference, taking place on 15th & 16th November at The Hilton Metropole in London, is aimed at:
- Advertising Budget Holders
- In-house search marketers
- Brand managers
- Paid search advertising planners and buyers
- Organic search optimization specialists
- Web technology experts
We’ll be covering a number of sessions on:
What’s new with search advertising? - Me
Creating search ads that convert - Colm Bracken - Lead Search Media Analyst
Search ad testing & tactics - Max Whiteford - Editorial Policy Analyst
Dealing with the penalty box - Nathan Buggia - Product Manager Live Search
If you’re thinking of coming Register Here using the promotional code SPSMX07 to get 10% off the entry fee!
I am sitting at Arlanda Airport, Stockholm. It’s very quiet, I’ve just eaten smoked reindeer and the bar is closed….
The last 48 hours that was SMX Stockholm has gone in a flash of furious learning, rabid talking and the much needed drink or three.
My session on what’s new with the search engines went off without a hitch. A 9am slot is actually pretty nice as everyone’s keen, attentive and of course, awake! It also meant I had the next couple of days to relax and listen to all the goings on which was nice for a change.
Singling out the Universal Search session, Andy Atikins-Kruger and Dixon Jones both spelled out the advantages and disadvantages of a shift by Google and others to a more blended set of search results, including not just regular links but also pictures and video.
Adam Lasnik, who I’d never met until last night, then gave us the inside scoop into why Google went down this route.
Adam, who is a lovely bloke, obviously very clever, and an engaging, extremely polite speaker, said that as Google want to organise the worlds information, the natural course of action would be to try and include all forms of media in whatever format.
It’s just taken so long to come up with the 1-stop-shop because they had to figure out ways to scale it.
The mantra seemed to be - Keep it fast, keep it simple and keep it relevant - which is kinda what you’d expect?
He hinted that partnerships were in the offing too, so not just GoogleBot sniffing around for content, but going deals with third parties.
Keen to put agencies who specialise in search engine optimization mind’s at ease, he encouragingly said “it’s still about the web, keep the usual strategies, create quality content in other forms and expect similar SEO guidelines to apply.”
So how has it been received by users? Well according to Adam users are finding what they need a lot more quickly, resulting in them doing more searches for other stuff, and far fewer users clicking on the second page of results.
I asked him if it had had an effect on the paid ads (AdWords) but he said he didn’t know because he’s not on the advertiser side of Google, but judging by the recent revenue figures and the share price crashing through the $700 barrier, it can’t have had that much of an adverse effect!!
Other than the usual suspects that attended as speakers, there was a new kid on the block (the speaking one anyway) - Joost De Valk - a Dutch 25 year old SEO consultant and web developer, who impressed me with his knowledge and, more importantly, his delivery of it.
One to watch….